The European Venture Summit held last week in the city’s main soccer stadium took place against the backdrop of thousands occupying the city’s Independence Square following President Viktor Yanukovych’s refusal to sign a trade-and-political accord with the European Union and fueled by a brutal crackdown by police. Worrying about innovative ways of selling footwear online seemed trite while others were protesting for their beliefs.

But are the protests helping Ukrainian entrepreneurs, or hindering them? Eveline Buchatsky, co-founder of Eastlabs, one of the former Soviet republic’s earliest tech accelerators, feared the protests would hurt the country’s already-troubled image.